Pressure is on to reduce dependence on fossil fuels

Although the Government continues in its carbon reduction charge, the reality is that installing clean energy generation in the commercial world isn’t necessarily as easy as it could be. As the electric grid distribution system was originally designed to provide energy to home/business, and not the other way round, it places serious restriction on how much energy can be exported back.

Many commercial users looking to invest in renewable energy are faced with two choices from the Distribution Network Operator (DNO); to either pay a large sum to upgrade the local network to enable the renewable installation or to restrict the installation to a certain size to alleviate surplus generation.

Steve Everard, head of Rexel Energy Solutions commented that indeed, despite falling demand, there is still a pressing need to replace the UK’s aging electricity infrastructure in order to provide adequate generation capacity, and the good news is that the Government has major plans in the pipeline.

Everard said: “In the interim, however, it is important that businesses do not postpone investing in renewable technologies, such as solar, due to grid restrictions because the latest export grid limitation devices can effectively alleviate this issue.”

Quite simply, these dynamic systems, integrated with an inverter, adjust the PV power product to allow more energy for self-consumption when the loads are high, while maintaining the export when the loads are low, Everard added.

He said: “In this way, businesses can ensure that their renewable capacity matches their demand profile in line with the DNO export limit without the need for costly upgrades, always only generating exactly what they need and what is allowed.”

As a leading renewable specialist, Rexel UK boasts the world’s leading export limitation system and largest inverter from SMA.

Enabling businesses to achieve the full capacity of PV that the location can support, without exceeding the DNO limitation, the SMA system produces all the PV power needed, exactly when it’s needed. During evenings, weekends and bank holidays the system will automatically limit the export power; and unlike most similar systems, the SMA export limitation system does not shut down the inverters completely, but only reduces their output power. 

Government incentives and the decrease of solar equipment costs means that the business case for solar has never been greater. Everard conclude: “As such, for those businesses not already doing so, we recommend making the switch to solar today in order to reap the huge financial, CSR and environmental benefits.”